The Timberwolves flirted with utter disaster throughout Saturday’s contest in Philadelphia.
In the end, thanks to Rudy Gobert’s rebounding and some ridiculous shot making from Anthony Edwards, Minnesota escaped with a 114-109 victory.
With Minnesota leading by two and the shot clock set to expire with 10 seconds to play in regulation, Edwards was caught in double-team jail outside the arc. The guard rose up and fired over four outstretched arms — splash.
“I don’t know, I was trapped. I knew there was six seconds left and I didn’t have nobody to throw it to. I just had to get enough space to get a shot off,” Edwards said in his post-game, on-court television interview. “I work on all those shots every day with (assistant coach Chris Hines), so big shoutout to him.”
The heroics came at the end of a quarter in which Edwards scored 18 points on the strength of four triples. The guard finished with 37 points on a night where he crossed a threshold of 300 made triples on the season. Minnesota needed all of it, which was surprising given the opponent.
Philadelphia entered Saturday’s bout as a loser of its previous 10 games. Six of the 76ers’ previous seven losses came by 13-plus points. They’ve been non-competitive. And yet they went down to the wire with the Wolves.
Because Minnesota simply isn’t playing with a competitive edge. The same was true against Brooklyn and, frankly, even in its dramatic win in Denver.
“It’s been who we’ve been all season, and it’s disappointing. It starts with surviving our own mistakes,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “We had a bunch of guys who didn’t play particularly well today, and the energy was down around that.”
The energy from everyone but Gobert. He continued his recent run of interior dominance, finishing with 23 points, 19 rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Gobert had eight points and eight rebounds in the fourth quarter alone, including a thunderous slam off an offensive rebound.
“It’s incredible to play with somebody who’s a phenomenal rim protector and a phenomenal rebounder,” Edwards said. “He’s been finishing the ball well lately, also. So big shoutout to Rudy. He’s been playing at a high level, and we need that going into the postseason.”
That Gobert slam put the Wolves up 11 with 4 minutes, 36 seconds to play. The game appeared to be closed at that point. But instead, Philadelphia guard Quentin Grimes went nuclear. He scored 14 points in the final three and a half minutes to add doubt back into the equation.
But Minnesota likely shouldn’t have found itself in such a fight to begin with.
“(Rudy) just refuses to let us lose on nights like this, but you can argue that we probably should have,” Finch said. “There’s no reason that we shouldn’t have had better, more energy tonight across the board.”
Particularly with just one week to play in the regular season, and everything at stake in the current Western Conference playoff chase.
Minnesota next plays in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
Related Articles
Timberwolves waxed by Pacers for third loss in four games
Timberwolves still being hurt by late-game shot selection. What’s the fix?
Timberwolves dominate the Jazz: Takeaways from Minnesota’s eighth straight win
Timberwolves trounce Denver … again: Five takeaways from yet another win over the Nuggets
Anthony Edwards suspended for Friday’s loss at Utah
Leave a Reply